FACTORS RELATING TO BEHAVIOR OF USING HERBS FOR HEALTH CARE DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONG THAKSIN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, PHATTHALUNG CAMPUS

Abstract

During the COVID-19 situation, the treatment of COVID-19 infection requires a high budget for the entire treatment as well as importing preventive medicines and vaccines. Therefore, using herbs is another option to take care of health in the situation of COVID-19. This research is survey research aims to study the level of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors as well as to study the factors related to behaviors of using herbs for healthcare in the COVID-19 Situation. The research tools consisted of a general information questionnaire and a questionnaire on knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding the use of medicinal herbs for health care. The datasets were analyzed by  descriptive statistics, Chi-square test as well as Pearson’s correlation coefficient.

The results showed that the majority of the respondents were female 66.49%, aged 20-22 years 64.94%, had no underlying disease 96.10%, and received news from internet media 75.58%. Most of the knowledge levels were moderate 54.29%, attitude levels were high 80.52% and behavior levels were low 76.11%. According to the study, factors that correlate with behavior were faculty (=42.160, p-value = 0.004). Knowledge showed very little positive correlation (r = 0.100, p-value = 0.044) and attitude showed very little positive correlation (r = 0.390, p-value = 0.000), respectively.

From the results of this research, knowledge about the use of herbs should be strengthened in order to achieve strength and sustainability in taking care of health in the future situation of COVID-19.